complain; and he has plenty of vagaries. When 'tis hot summer weather
there's nothing will do for him but Choir, Great, and Swell altogether,
till yer face is in a vapour; and on a frosty winter night he'll keep me
there while he tweedles upon the Twelfth and Sixteenth till my arms be
scrammed for want of motion. And never speak a word out-of-doors.'
Somebody suggested that perhaps Christopher did not notice his
coadjutor's presence in the street; and time proved to the organ-blower
that the remark was just.

Whenever Christopher caught himself at these vacuous tricks he would be
struck with admiration of Ethelberta's wisdom, foresight, and
self-command in refusing to wed such an incapable man: he felt that he
ought to be thankful that a bright memory of her was not also denied to
him, and resolved to be content with it as a possession, since it was as
much of her as he could decently maintain.

Wrapped thus in a humorous sadness he passed the afternoon under notice,
and in the evening went home to Faith, who still lived with him, and
showed no sign of ever being likely to do otherwise. Their present place
and mode of life suited her well. She revived at Melchester like an
exotic sent home again. The leafy Close, the climbing buttresses, the
pondering ecclesiastics, the great doors, the singular keys, the
whispered talk, echoes of lonely footsteps, the sunset shadow of the tall
steeple, reaching further into the town than the good bishop's teaching,
and the general complexion of a spot where morning had the stillness of
evening and spring some of the tones of autumn, formed a proper
background to a person constituted as Faith, who, like Miss Hepzibah
Pyncheon's chicken, possessed in miniature all the antiquity of her
progenitors.

After tea Christopher went into the streets, as was frequently his
custom, less to see how the world crept on there than to walk up and down
for nothing at all. It had been market-day, and remnants of the rural
population that had visited the town still lingered at corners, their
toes hanging over the edge of the pavement, and their eyes wandering
about the street.

The angle which formed the turning-point of Christopher's promenade was
occupied by a jeweller's shop, of a standing which completely outshone
every other shop in that or any trade throughout the town. Indeed, it
was a staple subject of discussion in Melchester how a shop of such
pretensions could find patronage sufficie